Here we go, Gov't trying to regulate the Internet !! (solutions, free speech, crimes)
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The internet is a ripe place for criminal activity. I don't understand why people would be upset that it is increasingly monitored. If you're not into shady shi*, why worry?
My mother is really afraid to use the Internet because she has read and heard of so many things like phishing, viruses, etc.
Theres a lot of garbage out there. For some people, espec. those who are not savvy with the internet for whatever reason, it can be pretty overwhelming to navigate.
Theres a lot of garbage out there. For some people, espec. those who are not savvy with the internet for whatever reason, it can be pretty overwhelming to navigate.
Yeah, that's how my hubby stays in business (he does come freelance computer repair work), lol. He always had some family member calling him about their computer issues. 9 times out of 10 has the issue being phishing, adware, etc. Issues ranged from clicking on email link that says his aunt won a $1k gift card from Wal Mart to playing poker online.
Skeet09, it simply had to be said. It seems us Americans have a tremendous amount of liberties to say what we want, where we want, when we want. In the history of "monitoring" there have been many, many tragic episodes, but the idea of increased regulations for internet behavior is something that peaks my interest. Adult porn is not going anywhere. Anyone linked to child porn is an idiot that needs to be found. Individuals making threatening comments to public officials, or anyone really, should also be held accountable. In my opinion, hate speech online is a problem, but apparently still permissable under our rather vast free speech concepts. But...tracking people engaged in such activity does often lead to successful convictions of individuals who have committed actual crimes. So, I am for monitoring to some degree. Its not a perfect system though, never has been.
Yeah, that's how my hubby stays in business (he does come freelance computer repair work), lol. He always had some family member calling him about their computer issues. 9 times out of 10 has the issue being phishing, adware, etc. Issues ranged from clicking on email link that says his aunt won a $1k gift card from Wal Mart to playing poker online.
Well, the world needs a lot of guys like your hubby. I am a vigilant anti spam advocate and am just disgusted by the cra* that comes through....AND that people actually waste their time coming up with this garbage!!!! Whats sad though is that a lot of people who are not savvy with internet do fall into these traps of clicking links etc and responding to bogus stuff. I find it supremely irritating and also wish it would be a criminal offense- all these phishing, spam scams etc.
It needs regulation. Somebody's got to do it. That said, don't know if Gov is the right body, but I am all for increased regulation of the internet. What is the alternative to not regulating?
Idk, what is the alternative to "the wheel"?
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I doubt it will come to a point where Americans need to comply with 15 regulations just to run a blog or website, but could it come to a point where people are actually held accountable for their actions- including spreading hate, threats or vile material online? Perhaps. One can always look to countries with even stricter censorship policies to realize that Americans have it very 'loosey goosey" when it comes to internet freedom. If you're doing weird shi#, someone might be watching you, for sure, but no one is clamping down on your so called "freedom to speak." It could be worse.
You're in Bavaria so it's tough to explain.. basically the FTC controls 3 out of 4 modes of expression: TV, Newspaper/magazine, Radio. Once blogs, youtube and the net really took off, media and freedom of speech improved dramatically for most of us. They do not control the Internet and it makes them uneasy that users can share ideas and discuss things, learn about stuff that you'd never get to see without the net - it completely opened up our minds. The govt doesn't like it because we can call them out on stuff like the ill-conceived war in Iraq, among thousands of other questionable issues. This is not about anyone doing shady ****, it's about CONTROL of people - plain & simple. Go read 1984 and please stay in Bavaria.
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Originally Posted by swagger
Remember the CAN-SPAM act?
There are also some pretty heavy data security regulations for any website that accepts credit cards.
Ask your ISP about data retention laws...
There are already a lot of laws that involve the Internet. I won't comment on this one, as I haven't looked into it at all, but your perception that this is something new is way off the mark.
Some stuff is necessary to regulate. Although I believe this would have been done anyway by private companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Google. Gmail is still relatively new and their spam bot is sick. Look at the technology behind spam enforcement, the govt had nothing to do with that. In fact, I don't think CAN-Spam had much of an effect as I still get tons of spam from foreign email accounts, except now the private companies have better spam blockers. It was google/msoft/yahoo/symantec/mcafee that solved our spam problems, not the CAN_SPAM. Now when is the govt going to can the stacks of spam mail I get to my physical mail box ?? Or would that cause loss of revenue for USPS?
Basically what I'm saying is, it's good that they regulate to an extent: return policy for big stores, Airport metal detectors, mastercard data encryption etc... but not good when they start regulating small local newspapers, putting in naked body scanners and groping people at airports, forcing small biz to comply with hundreds of layers of bureaucracy, trying to tax babysitters and lemonade stands, regulate websites & bloggers etc.
You're in Bavaria so it's tough to explain.. basically the FTC controls 3 out of 4 modes of expression: TV, Newspaper/magazine, Radio. Once blogs, youtube and the net really took off, media and freedom of speech improved dramatically for most of us. They do not control the Internet and it makes them uneasy that users can share ideas and discuss things, learn about stuff that you'd never get to see without the net - it completely opened up our minds. The govt doesn't like it because we can call them out on stuff like the ill-conceived war in Iraq, among thousands of other questionable issues. This is not about anyone doing shady ****, it's about CONTROL of people - plain & simple. Go read 1984 and please stay in Bavaria.
Pequaman,
I would love to stay in Germany but I am married to a service member and "duty" will probably take us back to our native terrain of the USA. That said, every single service member I have met who was stationed in Bavaria, or elsewhere in these neck of the woods, LOVED their time here and was in no hurry to return "home." For many of them, living in Europe is a nice respite to their deployments in the Middle East or being stationed somewhere in the US that is less than desirable, for many reasons.
I'm all for the "calling out" that occurs, aspects of free speech that are also relative to civil rights and concern. I just personally feel that the internet has enough criminal activity to be monitored that I don't get freaked out when I hear that increased monitoring may be occurring. We (the US) are hardly in a "Stasi" state of affairs. Like I said, it could be worse. I guess I just dont agree with you that there is "CONTROL" issue going on. There is enough anti gov crud floating around out there that I find the control conspiracy/idea a hard one to swallow. Just my thought.
My mother is really afraid to use the Internet because she has read and heard of so many things like phishing, viruses, etc.
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Originally Posted by skeet09
Yeah, that's how my hubby stays in business (he does come freelance computer repair work), lol. He always had some family member calling him about their computer issues. 9 times out of 10 has the issue being phishing, adware, etc. Issues ranged from clicking on email link that says his aunt won a $1k gift card from Wal Mart to playing poker online.
Thats already illegal, so how is regulating it going to stop illegal activity if the illegal activity is already illegal?
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